Heads snapped toward the direction of the sound as it pierced the air again, and weapons moved in unison to face that direction. “That was it wasn’t it? The Annihilators.” Aon remarked, a tinge of fear in her voice.
“No, there’s only one, though I’m not sure why it’s chosen to give away its position.” Oroc noted. “Did you see it?” He asked, his eyes flicking to the gun I had at ease.
I nodded, describing the black flame, spherical, like a uniform will-o’-the-wisp. He nodded, asking me about distance and position. As an afterthought, he asked me to describe the empty space we’d been travelling within.
“Hmmm, it sounds like the aether was drawn in and disappeared.” Jubin remarked, cupping his chin. “Like water down a drain. Too bad I’ve never heard of anything even remotely similar to this though.” He sighed. “It’s pretty unreasonable to hope for that considering the rarity of this situation.”
“It’s not moving this way, it seems to be winding along some path.” I observed, marking the trail it left as it progressed in my mind.
“There’s something like a path further on, the vegetation off the beaten track is plenty thick and annoying.” Oroc stated, seeming to draw a map from his pocket as he walked beside us. “Hmmm, according to the descriptions you’ve given me the true epicentre should roughly be around this point.”
A blip appeared on the map, as we oriented ourselves towards it. A plan was drafted for the creatures. First, we were going to kill it, and figure out what kind was in season this time. According to Oroc, the Adversary never reused the same creatures, and they evolved with each iteration of its coming. They had once been a mix of brutes that could fight squads on its own, small fast goblinoids that swarmed, and archers who used parts of themselves with every shot. Recently they’d been musketeers, giant shield bearers and pikemen, even saboteurs. The only constant was that they could all wield magic, the trick was what kind they used.
Some were elemental mages, doling out heat, cold, sometimes even gusts of wind. Others would use magic to strengthen themselves, giving them truly nightmarish strength and an indomitable constitution. Still others would form barriers, to hold against assault. The Brigade had never won decisively against them, in every campaign it would be a long drawn out battle of attrition, with rare cases of tactical acumen that changed the tides of war.
We grew paler at every piece of information that Oroc revealed, Aon began nervously tapping the safety, Jubin stared at Oroc both annoyed and afraid, and Fralator peered around every so often in quiet panic. Their concerns, as well as my own, were obvious, if their super-soldiers had never been able to win without great effort, what hope did we have, who were far below them?
[You need to stop hunching down, you’re tense, it won’t help you.] Page said, and I stopped to take a deep breath. Oroc, to his credit, noticed the effect he had on morale roughly ten metres in. He stopped speaking, coughing to gain our attention.
“First off, we faced hordes of Annihilators, we rarely managed to enter a fight where we weren’t outnumbered. Second, while your magical ability is much weaker than what we used to work with, we’re facing far less enemies, and we can have the element of surprise.” He gestured to me, a comforting smile on his face. “Finally, this is a scouting mission, while I will direct you to take them out if possible, I have no intention of pitting you head to head with the Annihilators themselves.”
They nodded. “Alright.” He said, rubbing his hands together. “Do you see any more of them within sight range?” he asked, and I shook my head, I’d been tracking it since it appeared, at the expense of a small migraine. “Good, take aim while Delving, and shoot dead centre when you’re told. Everyone else, in formation.” Jubin and Fralator took aim five metres from the vegetation, as Aon stood in the middle behind them, a barrier already prepared.
I took aim, feeling very strange as I placed my head behind the sights yet took aim against an alien sky. I focused on my breathing, waiting for the perfect moment. In, out, in, out, in, stop… fire.
The shriek sounded again, and I knew I’d struck, the sphere spun, suddenly surging towards us. The vegetation rustled, and a humanoid slid out, body against the floor. Jubin and Fralator’s bullets went over its head, and it righted itself to swing a large inky mass towards them. They ducked under it, hurriedly putting distance between it and them as they righted their aim, dodging as small masses pinched off its body and flung itself towards them.
The creature screamed as an explosion occurred just before its shoulder, and a few more quickly followed, pelting a shield that glowed dark blue with each strike, as Aon provided the others with a brief respite. I took aim again, firing a single bullet that crackled against its shield and thudded against the creature’s body, it stumbled back, bleeding, and started to duck and weave, reducing the shots Aon could place on it. But it was too late to save itself, Jubin and Fralator emptied their weapons into its chest, and amidst crackling sparks it fell to the ground, twitching and bleeding out.
Aon closed on the creature, firing a shot into the creature’s chest and blowing it open to stop it from moving. Aon breathed out a sigh of relief as Jubin walked closer to the creature and knelt to inspect it. Fralator looked to me, gesturing with his head towards the periphery. I shook my own, there had been no others within my sight, nor had any entered it.
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Oroc knelt down next to Jubin, gently instructing him to use the combat knife he had to shift the different parts of the body out of the way, and perform a dissection on the more intact portions of its body. Aon seemed to watch with morbid fascination, and Jubin himself seemed grudging towards the dissection itself.
“Curious, this part seems like it would have matured into a separate organ, capable of expelling fluid in a desired direction.” Oroc muttered, curious and strangely annoyed as he continued his observations. “Cut here, and shift this out of the way. This looks like it would be armoured, it’s too weak otherwise. This is remarkably defective, and nascent, for the Adversary.”
“Could you kindly stop critiquing the enemy’s taste in design, and deign to continue the journey?” Fralator asked, standing almost two metres from the creature itself, shuffling nervously.
“No, this is providing insight, our foes never had easy weaknesses, if they had any at all. They had armour, redundant organs, a veritable arsenal.” Oroc said, his voice morphing to a disturbing low growl. “All this begins to paint a picture, and it is one I do not like.”
He stood then, abruptly beginning the trek further towards the centre, stopping after a few more steps. “Well? If the orb doesn’t move, I can’t go further. Pick up the pace.”
As we picked up, he faded from view. I considered his words. He was right, it seemed unfinished, looking like a prototype rather than the killing machines that he had described to us. Its combat was likely instinctual, it didn’t seem sapient, as it didn’t possess a brain, though it also didn’t seem to have traditional organs. No digestive system, seemingly electromagnetic based organs that pinched off pieces to throw themselves at targets, thin but strong bones, muscles that literally felt like steel even relaxed.
“Keep an eye on the Magi plane.” Oroc’s voice whispered from by my ear, and I shuddered, nearly leaping in fright. “Any questions you have I’ll see about answering later.”
I peered back in, surprised at how easily it came now, Oroc told me to try a partial Delve, presenting the overlay I had seen during the relief efforts. I used it now. “It’s fortunate that the planes in this reality are geographically locked.” Oroc remarked. “Each plane is simply stacked onto the other, it’s pretty rare, not to mention how the planet seems to be stationary relative to the orientation of the plane. Perhaps if you left the planet it would be different.”
I raised an eyebrow in his direction. “Being a part of an organization that spans realities means a whole wealth of information that can be accessed, even if it would be best to allow us to advance on our own.” He replied. “After all, how can we find new things if we keep chasing others?”
He sighed then. “This work, may be one of our own blunders.” I perked up at that, though I continued to scan the distance. “We’re not part of the plan, that can be good, or very bad.”
He remained silent after that, and I realized he had spoken all he wished.
The next few appeared further in, and this time, we lacked the comfort of outnumbering it. Something else bothered me, close to them were bunches of complex patterns, they seemed humanoid in form, but lay upon the ground, sprawled at unnatural angles. “That’s them. The Brigade, or at least, the articles we have to retrieve.” His head bowed, Oroc’s hushed voice confirmed.
Four foes, the vegetation was thinning, but they were split, two within the trench ahead, another roaming a short distance away, and another beside the entrance itself. We knelt down at the edge as I continued to watch them by Delving, and began plotting.
“We don’t have to fight them.” Jubin said. “We could circle around and climb in, I think we have rope that might work for the climb.”
“Too risky, if they heard us, we’re dead, if we have to shoot further within the trench, the sound will echo along, and we’d be attacked from two directions. I prefer to have a clear exit.” I said.
“I’d jus rather they died now so they can’t bite others in the back later.” Aon clarified. “Defective or not they’re still gonna be dangerous to a lot of people.” She doodled as she spoke, formulating a plan of action.
The dull crack of a rifle shot signalled the start, as the creature roaming about finally passed the right lip of the trench. Sparks flew as the bullet pierced the shield and jammed itself into the lower body, striking at the creature’s thought centre. It spasmed, falling into the pit. In response, the other three rushed in my direction, two clambering up the side of the trench. Another sign of their immaturity, driven by instinct rather than method.
Jubin and Fralator rushed out the vegetation on the left side of the trench, firing their bullets at close range. The creatures shrieked, turning to jump towards them, and forced them back.
Unexpected. I thought, dropping the rifle and ducking as I ran to minimize the chance of the lone creature’s projectiles striking. A pain shot up my leg and I stumbled, falling into the tall grass and bushes aside encircling the entrance. The creature was greeted by Aon, waiting patiently a little ways away from where I entered, hidden as I now was.
I rolled over and stood up shakily, the skin of my wound was agitated, the flesh beneath slightly stretching it where the wound was. I limped back to the rifle, drawing my pistol as I watched for Jubin and Fralator. From the Magi plane I could see that the flames had gone out, and I relaxed, picking up the rifle and moving towards the articles Oroc had wanted. Aon led the mule out from further back down the path.
Oroc knelt down beside the bodies, his knees over brown bloodstained dirt, and gestured for the visor to be removed. “One of you three.” He said, gesturing towards Jubin, Aon and Fralator. They looked to each other, hesitant. “Just do that hand game, you flip palms or something right? It’s universal isn’t it?”
They stared at Oroc, and counted to three, deciding ultimately on Jubin. Jubin groaned as he reached down, tugging at the strangely clothlike visor. It seemed to suddenly bounce open, revealing a face well into the stages of decomposition, no maggots had infested the corpse, but bacteria had obviously already gotten to it. Oroc sighed, “Take it off, it’s water repellent and nothing sticks to it, pack in onto the mule.” He turned to me. “Grab a pair of gloves or gauntlets and don’t touch the clothing directly.”
A putrid stench had already begun to pervade the area, and Aon turned to throw up at the stench. I coughed, beginning to walk back to the mule to do as he’d asked.